Sometime around 2012, a Ram Trucks source told TTAC about an investigation into a smaller pickup for the brand, one that could have even turned out to be a front-drive pickup. “We won’t do another Dakota,” said our source, “but maybe something else.”. By all accounts, that truck would have been based on one of Fiat’s small, unibody front-drive pickups. But now, Fiat seems to want a Dakota of its own.

Automotive News reports that Fiat will get a new body-on-frame midsize truck starting in 2016, which will be a variant of the Mitsubishi L200. The Thai-built L200 is a smaller, body-on-frame pickup with rear or four-wheel drive and both gasoline and diesel engines, making it a good fit for Fiat’s commercial vehicle lineup. And it’s very likely that we’ll never seen it here.

Just a re-touch, I think. I don’t think sales here are slow for price, the Triton is actually more expensive than most of the competition. Here it lags behind S10, Hilux, Ranger, Amarok and I believe it disputes 5th place with the Frontier. I think the car is actually built here now, so there could well be Brazilian input into it as there was, apparently, in the Ranger, S10/Colorado and Amarok.

I had one of those as my first car. The stripper model, not the cool one in the picture.

It was terrible to drive, and badly underpowered. It steered like a cow, and often couldn’t out-accelerate one. I felt the lack of A/C daily.

With an empty gas tank and bed, I could lift up the back of the truck and scoot it around like a wheelbarrow fix a parking job. But it didn’t have the power to break the wheels loose on pavement, unless you turned the steering wheel and popped the clutch.

Still, it was incredibly useful and carried tons of stuff for us, and I learned how to handle non-ABS slides and RWD fishtailing in it.

I’m glad I drove it. I’m even more glad I’m not driving it anymore. The fact that this little POS set my reference frame is probably one of the reasons find the difference in suspension feel between a Prius, an F-150, and a BMW Z3 to all be “just fine”.

Dodge D-50: all of the drawbacks of using a Cessna 150 as a daily driver, but without the ability to fly.

I’m glad you qualified that as a “stripper model”. The one I owned (see below) had air conditioning and enough power to outrun the Renault Fuego Turbo (I know, that’s still not all that great, but the Turbo Fuego was one of the quickest SMALL cars of the day).

I’ll admit I’m not a weightlifter, so I didn’t even try the stunt you mentioned, but I will point out that it easily carried everything I wanted it to carry, with loads up to 800 pounds AND two passengers beside me in the cab.

One thing you glossed over though; you admitted the thing was fun to drive, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable. Then again, back then NO truck was really *comfortable*.

While I never had the Plymouth, I did have the Mitsubishi from which it was built. It was known as the Mitsubishi Sport pickup, as compared to the Mighty Max which was their less-expensive but more haul-friendly model.

By the way, you’d be surprised how many oddball, not-in-USA cars you see in Vegas, all with Mexican plates. I’ve seen the above truck, some weird Nissan SUV, newer Peugeots, a non-US variant on a Toyota Echo, even a SEAT hatchback.

I used to live in Tucson, AZ. If you went to the mall on Sunday, you could see all those vehicles and more. Many Mexican families would come up from Sonora and Sinaloa to shop. The most common Mexican registered car that I would see was the Nissan Tiida.

Lack of a “new” Dakota from Dodge means they will lose me as a customer. I love the size of my current 2002 Dak, its the fuel mileage I can’t stand. I’d take the same truck with 4 banger diesel tomorrow if someone could sell one here in the states.

Currently I’m in Brazil doing some work and can’t get over the number of Fiats and other FWD car based “trucklets”. As a coworker said: they are like mini-El Camino’s everywhere here! Even Chevy makes one. They are cute but wouldn’t cut it for towing.

This pickup is common here in Brazil. It is outclassed by the competition unfortunately as to my eyes it looks pretty good. Ranger, Amarok, Frontier, S10 (Colorado) all have advantages over it. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it’s kind of soft. The previous L200, also on sale here is a real work truck.

Derek, this is new to me. Fiat has been in talks with truck makers for a long time. Mahindra, Tata, even Dodge before the tie-up were frequently mentioned. Fiat never took an interest as this kind of truck would never appeal in Europe though it has a strong and very profitable market here.

If it does come about there will be 4 pick ups in FCA’s line up. The car based Strada, a strada-based but bigger PU similar to Honda’s Element technically speaking and midway between a Strada and the truck shown here in size, this truck and the RAM.

I think it’s too much, unless Dodge is in fact looking for a new Dakota.

If that’s the case it is under development in Brazil. Said to be about the size of the original Ranger and built like an Element, I have seen around the Fiat factory and out in the street. Seems like it could be built at any moment just won’t be because of what I wrote in my piece on FCA’s 5 yr plan from the Brazilian perspective.

* Nissan Navara isnt very reliable but their V6 twin turbo is a whirlwind. — Individual tastes. If it were me, I’d ignore that ‘whirlwind’ if I couldn’t trust the vehicle overall.

* Chinese, Korean and Indian? lol — I’ll admit the reputation of Chinese-built vehicles doesn’t seem so great, but Korean vehicles are proving themselves here in the States. With Indian-built vehicles, that seems a factor of the manufacturer itself as Mahindra has proven itself in at least one market here in the US. Considering that the Mahindra trucks and SUVs are based on the Kaiser/Willys Jeep license somewhere around 1950, you could almost call them direct descendants of that old Willys. I’m actually disappointed that certain regulations (and other issues) prevented Mahindra from entering its trucks in the US market.